Starcast Join the waitlist
The Next Big Idea

The Next Big Idea

Sorry, Skeptics — AI Is Not a Bubble

Jul 23, 2026 · 1h 18m

Coming soon to iPhone. Already have it? “Listen in Starcast” takes you straight there.

On this episode

About this episode

First, a few numbers. This year Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta will spend more than $700 billion building AI infrastructure. There are 1,500 data centers in development across the country. AI-linked stocks make up at least 40% of the S&P 500. These are the kinds of numbers that make some economists jumpy. If this whole AI thing doesn't pan out, they warn, we're headed for the mother of all crashes. But Azeem Azhar is not one of those economists. He and his team recently spent months turning the AI economy inside out, and they just released a report called The State of the AI Economy. It contains surprising answers to what has become an increasingly pressing question: is this the…